A Pressure Swing Approach to Selective CO Sequestration Using Functionalized Hypercrosslinked Polymers.

Functionalized hypercrosslinked polymers (HCPs) with surface areas between 213 and 1124 m/g based on a range of monomers containing different chemical moieties were evaluated for CO capture using a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) methodology under humid conditions and elevated temperatures. The networks demonstrated rapid CO uptake reaching maximum uptakes in under 60 s. The most promising networks demonstrating the best selectivity and highest uptakes were applied to a pressure swing setup using simulated flue gas streams. The carbazole, triphenylmethanol and triphenylamine networks were found to be capable of converting a dilute CO stream (>20%) into a concentrated stream (>85%) after only two pressure swing cycles from 20 bar (adsorption) to 1 bar (desorption). This work demonstrates the ease with which readily synthesized functional porous materials can be successfully applied to a pressure swing methodology and used to separate CO from N from industrially applicable simulated gas streams under more realistic conditions.